DERU Partnership: Office-Level Implementation
An Immediate-Start Digital-Evidence Readiness Pathway for Public Defender Offices
DERU—the Digital Evidence Review Unit—is the office-level implementation pathway for the National Digital Evidence Readiness Framework for Public Defense.
DERU allows a public defender office to begin building digital-evidence readiness through its existing attorneys, investigators, leadership, and case-review functions—without first creating a forensic laboratory, specialized department, or full-time technical unit.
Partner offices also become members of the Digital Innocence Coalition.
Enroll Your Office as a DERU Partner
Explore the National Framework
What DERU Helps an Office Do
DERU gives public defender offices a practical way to make digital-evidence readiness part of everyday casework.
Partner offices can use the Framework and its resources to:
- Introduce early digital-evidence case assessment
- Identify and prioritize time-sensitive evidence
- Examine what law enforcement collected and what may be missing
- Introduce more consistent preservation, collection, discovery, and evidence-review practices across the office
- Recognize when qualified forensic assistance is needed
- Apply structured digital-evidence review in appellate and post-conviction cases
No prior technical knowledge or examiner-level proficiency is required.
Each office determines how the approach fits its own structure, staffing, policies, cases, and professional obligations.
What DERU Partners Receive
DERU partners receive an immediate-start implementation package that includes:
DERU Executive Summary
A leadership overview of the partnership, available resources, and implementation options.
DERU Roadmap
A practical guide for introducing digital-evidence readiness through existing office functions.
Digital Evidence Case Assessment Checklist
A case-level starting point for identifying potential digital evidence, examining what was collected, recognizing what may be missing, and prioritizing immediate needs.
Time-Sensitive Digital Evidence Guide
Guidance for identifying evidence at risk of being overwritten, deleted, or otherwise lost.
Post-Conviction Review Resources
The Post-Conviction Digital-Evidence Review Checklist and Post-Conviction Digital-Evidence Technical Guide support review of older convictions involving potential digital-evidence issues or changing forensic capabilities.
Digital Evidence Toolbox Access
Access to practical provider, preservation, discovery, standards, technical, and digital-forensic resources for use in actual cases.
Digital Innocence Coalition Participation
DERU partners become members of the Digital Innocence Coalition, including access to shared resources, training, practitioner exchange, and the public-defender-only listserv for authorized participants.
Explore the Digital Evidence Toolbox
How an Office Can Begin
1. Enroll the Office
An authorized representative submits the DERU enrollment form.
2. Designate a Primary Contact
The office identifies the person who will coordinate access and receive implementation materials.
3. Review the Roadmap
Leadership determines how DERU fits within the office’s existing structure and priorities.
4. Start With One Person and One Case
An attorney or investigator begins using the case-assessment and time-sensitive evidence resources in an actual case.
5. Expand as Appropriate
The office can extend the process to additional attorneys, investigators, practice areas, training programs, or case-review functions as experience develops.
Enroll Your Office as a DERU Partner
Who May Join?
DERU partnership is intended for federal, state, local, appellate, and post-conviction public defender offices and agencies.
Enrollment must be submitted or approved by an authorized office representative. Participating offices may designate appropriate attorneys, investigators, leadership, trainers, appellate and post-conviction personnel, and litigation-support staff.
Individual defense professionals who are not enrolling a public defender office should use the Digital Evidence Toolbox individual-access pathway.
Request Individual Toolbox Access
Free, Independent, and Built Around Existing Resources
DERU partnership, implementation materials, and Toolbox access are free for eligible public defender offices.
Participation does not require an office to retain DII or any particular investigator, consultant, forensic laboratory, expert, or technical-services provider.
Bring Digital-Evidence Readiness Into Your Office
DERU helps public defender offices move from individual case awareness to a more consistent office-wide approach.
Begin now, establish the process, and expand implementation as the office’s experience and needs develop.